


Do Not Consider Painful What Is Good For You

by SharpestScalpel



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Charles is a terrifying man, Gen, darkish, good thing he's governed by strict internal morals, the folly of free will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-04
Updated: 2011-10-04
Packaged: 2017-10-24 07:37:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/260747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharpestScalpel/pseuds/SharpestScalpel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's all so tempting; it would be so easy. Charles dreams about the folly of free will.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do Not Consider Painful What Is Good For You

**Author's Note:**

> This was a minifill for this kink meme prompt: http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/5215.html?thread=5197919#t5197919
> 
>  _People fear monsters, shun them, know they're evil, try to kill them. Gods? Gods are worshiped, adored, revered - even when they do monstrous things._
> 
>  _Charles' greatest fear isn't that he might loose all self-control and become a monster._
> 
>  _It's that he might let himself become a god._
> 
>  _It would be so easy._

He would not stop Erik when the day came. It would be so easy; Charles could plant the seeds of it now, in the quiet moments like this with Erik asleep down the hall. Erik's dreams were the loudest, drowning out the others in the house: his dreams were the only place Erik remembered how to laugh. Charles could, with nothing but a thought, hold on to the feeling of those dreams and give it back to Erik when he woke in the morning, sunlight streaming in through the clear window. It would be so easy to nudge at Erik's thoughts until all he had worked for collapsed under his longing for a few peaceful moments in the garden, reading and talking with Charles. He could make Erik love him, beat the sword into a ploughshare - and Erik would think it was all of his own volition, would be proud to offer such a sacrifice to his friend, to Charles.

It would be so easy to allow Raven free rein over the grounds to course wild and blue where no one could see her - and then to teach her that others were undeserving of her true visage. Charles was not jealous of his sister's love, but it would be so easy to whisper in her ear that what she really longed for was simply approval. Charles would give her that, would offer her praise and love and attention until she turned her true form away from the humans and offered them only her safe blonde disguise.

Hank already loved him. It would be nothing to turn that into something more worshipful. Charles could use the boy's own devotion inspire self-confidence; Charles would never love an unworthy acolyte, after all.

It was not difficult to rationalize it; none of them, even as they clung so tightly to their notions of free will, were truly free. Erik's decisions were shaped by Shaw, by the events of his childhood. Erik had no such thing as free will when he had been so deftly forged by that hand - Erik could not even see the toolmaker's mark upon himself.

Raven's choices were made by the masses, by the tides of public perception. Every crossroads of her life had been governed by the rule of prejudice and ignorance.

The humans - the only challenge they would present was that of number. Charles could slip in, make the changes he considered necessary, build peace on his own terms. He could make them crave their own inferiority, but there was no real need to go so far as all that. He could simply give them the appropriate wonder and awe at the marvelous variety of mutant powers.

Charles shuddered in his own sleep, pulled the blanket tighter to his chin. It would be so easy and it was all so tempting.


End file.
